Syntactic Parsing Preferences and their On-Line Revisions: A Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Event-Related Brain Potentials

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2001

Keywords

Event-related potentialLanguage processingSyntactic ambiguitySpatio-temporal principal component analysisP600/SPS, P300ERP Sub-component

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0926-6410(00)00065-3

Abstract

The present study investigates the processes involved in the recovery from temporarily ambiguous garden-path sentences. Event-related brain potentials (ERP) were recorded while subjects read German subject–object ambiguous relative and complement clauses. As both clause types are initially analyzed as subject-first structures, object-first structures require a revision which is more difficult for complement than for relative clauses. The hypothesis is tested that the revision process consists of two sub-processes, namely diagnosis and actual reanalysis. Applying a spatio-temporal principal component analysis to the ERP data, distinct positive sub-components presumably reflecting different sub-processes could be identified in the time range of the P300 and P600. It will be argued that the P600 is not a monolithic component, and that different subprocesses may be involved at varying time points depending on the type of garden-path sentence.

Was this content written or created while at USF?

No

Citation / Publisher Attribution

Cognitive Brain Research, v. 11, issue 2, p. 305-323

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS